Grass Shimp

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I am from MN but I did live in Cando ND for 6 years and I was woundering how the grass shimp got in the lakes in ND and SD, were thay stocked, can thay be stocked in other lakes, and were did thay come from, I have never seen them in any of our lakes thanks for anything you can tell me. you can post or E-mail me at [email protected] thanks agin and good fishing!

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The Grass Shrimp is not native to our inland waters as far as I know in the midwest.

Are you are refering to a freshwater shrimp often called the Fairy shrimp or Gammarus (scuds, sideswimmers). There are two types of freshwater Shrimp in our interior lakes. These are the Hyella shrimp and the Gammarus shrimp. At a casual glance, the only visible difference is in their size. The Hyella never grow as large as the Gammarus. They hardly reach or grow more than 1 inch. I believe the shrimp are native to many lakes, ponds, and rivers all over the U.S.

Not all lakes can sustain large population of these shrimp and it may interfere with an ecological lake's system if introduced to a new or different lake which makes it not ideal.

What makes Devils Lake special is the water has large contents of Calcium Carbonate & Magnesium Carbonate which these shrimp needs to sustain their bodies. Add along with the correct algae & food source. Not every lake has the ideal properties to sustain these invertebrates.

These shrimp make up an sustain the Devils lake fishery with their abundance as a food source for predatory fish.

Kewaunnee 8/8-8/13
My dad and I fished out of Kewaunee for about 5 days and it was slow but steady for us. Ended up 12-16 with about a dozen shakers on top of that and a couple drive byes. We caught fish in 80-165 fow but fished as deep as 370 fow with only one drive by in 312 fow for the deep run. One one fish in a meat rig, one on a flasher fly, 3(+5 shakers) on clean spoons, 1 in a spoon with a dodger and 6(+7 shakers) on a spoon pro troll 8" spin ray. We added the spinner/spoon into the spread the last 2 1/2 days. Outside of the shakers the fish ran nice but no giants with the biggest just over 19 lbs. Sog was 2.2-2.8 mph. Surface temps ran 67-73 degrees. Fish were caught 40-70 feet down.

Talking to a few other boats reports varied from 0-8 fish per trip and boats were scatteredall over the lake. Some big fish being caught and lost. Here's a few pics from our trip.

some very interesting CWD information can be heard below if you're interested to get some science behind the disease
http://www.themeateater.com/podcasts/ep-070-chronic-wasting-disease/
http://podcasts.joerogan.net/podcasts/doug-duren-bryan-richards